This invention relates to a new medicinal compositions and methods of treating hepatic disorders.
Hepatic disorders, in particular those caused by viral infections, are a major health problem and the successful treatment of hepatic diseases poses a great challenge to the medical profession. With respect to hepatic diseases caused by viral infection, currently patients in advanced stages of the infection cycle (chronic hepatitis) with, for example, hepatitis C virus are treated with Interferon (xe2x80x9cIFNxe2x80x9d) with only about 25% success rate. IFN is not readily available to patients and a six-month course of IFN therapy costs about $3000. It also gives rise to several side-effects such as severe flu symptoms, lethargy, hair loss and undesirable tastes in the mouth. IFN acts against the virus via the immune system and does not reverse any physiological abnormalities or damage caused by the infection e.g. hepatic cirrhosis, diminished spleen function, etc. Furthermore, as there is a number of hepatic disorders which are not caused by viral infection, the administration of INF to patients with non-viral hepatic disorders would be ineffective.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an effective method of and medication for, treatment of both viral and non-viral hepatic disorders which avoids or at least ameliorates one or more of the disadvantages of current treatments.
According to a first aspect, the invention consists in a composition comprising the herbs Salvia miltiorrhiza and Polyporus umbellatus, or extracts thereof.
In the preferred embodiment the invention consists in the composition which further comprises at lest one of the herbs Curcuma longa, Astragalus membranaceus, Loranthus parasiticus and Polygonum cuspidatum, or extracts thereof.
In another preferred embodiment the invention consists in a composition which further comprises at least one of the herbs Poria cocos, Artemisia capillaries, Taraxacum mongolicum, Paeonia lactiflora, Panax pseudogiseng, Bupleurum falcatum, Crataegus pinnatifida, Glechoma longituba, Codonopsis pilosula, Lycium barbarum, Zizyphus jujuba, Gentiana manshurica and Glycyrrhiza uralensis, or extracts thereof.
According to a second aspect the invention consists in a composition comprising the herbs Salvia miltiorrhiza, Polyporus umbellatus, Poria cocos, Artemisia capillaries, Taraxacum mongolicum, Paeonia lactiflora, Panax pseudoginseng, Bupleurum falcatum, Crataegus pinnatifida, Curcuma longa, Glechoma longituba, Astragalus membranaceus, Codonopsis pilosula, Loranthus parasiticus, Lycium barbarum, Polygonum cuspidatum, Zizyphus jujuba, Gentiana manshurica and Glycyrrhiza uralensis, or extracts thereof.
According to a third aspect, the invention consists in a method of treating hepatic disorders comprising the step of administering to a patient requiring such treatment any one of the compositions described above.
Preferably, the hepatic disorder treated is a non-viral hepatic disorder such as alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis or autoimmune liver disease.
More preferably the hepatic disorder treated is caused by a viral infection such as hepatitis virus A, B or C infection.
The treatment can be therapeutic or prophylactic, and may be administered orally or parenterally. The parenteral route could be topical, intravenous or subcutaneous. The treatment may be delivered in a single bolus dose, multiple doses or via a slow release device or a depot.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the composition of the invention comprises Salvia miltiorrhiza and Polyporus umbellatus in the proportion of from 1:1 to 1:5 or 5:1. For example, these herbs may each comprise from 6 to 30% of the total weight of the herbal composition, the balance being made up for example by other herbs, preferably Curcuma longa (2-10%). Astragalus membranaceus (5-30%), Loranthus parasiticus (5-30%) and Polygonum cuspidatum (3-20%).
Although the administration of a composition containing only Salvia and Polyporus will be effective in treating chronic hepatitis, the synergism between all the herbs render the administration of a combination containing each herb desirable.
Thus, in a more preferred embodiment, the composition comprises each herb combined in the proportions given in Table 1.
Various parts of each herb may be used and these include the root, stem, fruit or whole plant or tuber.
The availability of the herbs and ease of concentrating the extracts provides a cheaper, alternative medicine which also does not give rise to undesirable side-effects. There is also a higher incidence of cure in that liver cirrhosis may be reversed and hepatic enzyme levels and microcirculation may be normalised, thus rendering this form of treatment applicable not only to hepatic disorders caused by virus infection but also those disorders caused by other agents and causes which can compromise liver function and microcirculation.
The invention will now be described with reference to the following example to illustrate a preferred embodiment only and does not serve to limit the invention.